Zeeland man sentenced up to 15 years for fatal 1-car crash

Monday

May 5, 2014 at 10:33 AMMay 5, 2014 at 10:33 AM

By Jim.Hayden@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4274

A 20-year-old Zeeland man could spend up to 15 years in prison after a passenger in his car died in the one-vehicle crash last summer.Eddy Alexander Ruano was sentenced Monday in Allegan County Circuit Court for operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death.Ruano’s blood-alcohol level was 0.12 percent, according to a lab report from the Michigan State Police. A blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent is considered intoxicated.Brandon Ignacio-Caballero, 20, of Holland, died in the early morning July 13 crash.The vehicle driven by Ruano was eastbound on Ottogon Street at 48th Street in Fillmore Township about 6:30 a.m. when the vehicle went off the road and crashed into a culvert. Ignacio-Caballero was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene.A second passenger, Samuel Arellano Jr., of Holland, was flown by helicopter to Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus.Ruano was taken to Holland Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.He originally faced four other charges: operating while license suspended/revoked/denied causing death, reckless driving causing death, reckless driving causing serious impairment of a body function and operating while intoxicated causing serious injury.Ruano pleaded not guilty on Jan. 17, but a plea agreement was reached with prosecutors on Feb. 5 that dismissed the four other charges while he pleaded guilty to the operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death.Judge Margaret Bakker sentenced him to 36 months to 15 years and to pay $698 in costs and fines.Ruano’s crash occurred at a deadly time on Holland-area roads.Also on July 13, Reyna Isabel Mendoza drove through a red light at 7:20 a.m. at State Street and Business I-196 in Zeeland, striking a vehicle and killing Dale Woodwyk, 74. Mendoza was sentenced to 24 months probation, community service, costs and fines for a moving violation causing death.Jason Darold Onstott, 41, pleaded not guilty in April to the misdemeanor charges of a moving violation causing death and a moving violation causing serious impairment for the July 30 crash in Overisel Township that killed David Bremer, 57, of Holland, who was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Glenn Kleinheksel, who was injured.The charge of a moving violation causing death is punishable by up to a year in jail and/or a $2,000 fine. The charge of a moving violation causing serious impairment carries a possible jail term of up to 93 days and/or a $500 fine.Onstott, who requested a jury trial, remains free on bond.— Follow Jim Hayden on Twitter@SentinelJim.